The old Cave Theater as seen in that picture from 1981 was a great place. The interior was all done up like an actual cave. the curved cave ceiling and walls. The uneven cave floors. Some of the seating areas were partitioned off into almost booth like areas with low cave walls.

The atmosphere was very sleazy inside and as far as the management was concerned there was a policy of pretty much anything goes. It was not uncommon to see some pretty wild stuff going on in the audience as well as on the screen.

More intriguing about this disgusting theatre was that it was a popular restaurant/nightclub in the 50’s. You can tell by the green tile like walls that clash with the more modern marquee and surroundings.

In the 1980 movie “DON’T ANSWER THE PHONE!”, there is a nice shot of the Cave theatre between the 39 and 40 minute mark. Many other street scenes are scattered throughout the 95 minute exploitation film.

Originally opened as Sardi’s restaurant in 1933. After a fire, it reopened as a nightclub. Then, it became the Cave adult book store/theatre. After that, it became the Hollywood Cabaret strip club. Now, it’s the Deja Vu Showgirls strip club. It should probably be listed as “closed”, as the building’s current incarnation doesn’t show movies or even have a screen in place.

On September 3rd, 2011 during a trip that included Los Angeles, I stood waiting at a bus stop in front of a former business with an aging mustard yellow marquee. A folding gate blocked the doorway, where discarded soda cans and fast food wrappers had accumulated in the space between. Some other signage made statements such as “Girls, Girls, Girls” (reminding me of the Motley Crue song)… I thought, “Oh, it’s a defunct movie theater that is now a defunct strip club!”.

For a while as I waited for the bus, two women in their early 20’s stood silently under the marquee holding a handmade cardboard sign that said “Hungry Hobos” and a request for money. Occasionally some people would offer assistance and chat with them, but I got the impression this was possibly a sort of performance/experiment to see how people would respond.

A year or so later I thought it would be fun to try to find the place on Cinema Treasures, but couldn’t remember what it was called or where in L.A. I had been.

Then on February 12th, 2016, I was watching the documentary “David Bowie – Five Years” that was airing on PBS. During a segment describing Bowie’s time in Los Angeles in the 1970’s, an interviewee’s voice says Bowie felt he needed to leave L.A. because the culture was getting too crazy and therefore unhealthy for him, while for a moment the image on the screen is a lit up marquee of a theater called The Cave taken from a passing car. …. I wrote down the name and looked it up on Cinema Treasures: Ha – it just happened to be the theater that I had stood in front of back in 2011! (Apparently with a remodeled exterior and reopened as a strip club.)